Joe Carnahan Lobbies For The PREACHER Gig!

Once, it was going to be a movie directed by Rachel Talalay. Then it was going to be an HBO series produced by DAREDEVIL maestro Mark Steven Johnson. Then it was going to be a movie again, this time directed by Sam Mendes. Now, it's an open assignment. And Joe Carnahan wants it.
Though it was just an off-the-cuff remark to SuperHeroHype's Ed Douglas, Carnahan's fervent interest in transferring Garth Ennis's graphic novel PREACHER to the big screen could be just the thing to get this project a greenlight - especially if THE A-TEAM opens to big business this weekend. Of all the directors who've flirted with PREACHER, Carnahan is the first who strikes me as well-suited to tackling this very funny and deeply sacrilegious material. Here's what he had to say to SuperHeroHype...

"I'm kind of desperate to do another comic book adaptation," he told us. "And the other thing I'm really keen on or interested in is 'Preacher' because I'm a big Garth Ennis fan and I love that series and that's out there, and that might be something… I really love that. You gotta do the Allfather (D'Aronique) and all that crazy sh*t and I haven't seen a script and I don't know what it is, but yeah, we'll see. Who knows?"

Neal Moritz told Collider two months ago that he was in talks with a director to take over for the recently vacated Mendes. Judging from Carnahan's comments, he wasn't that unnamed director, but if Moritz is still mulling his options, he could do a lot worse than take a meeting with Joe.
The current draft of PREACHER is by John August. According to Moritz, the plan is to get the film before cameras in 2011.

Although Preacher is far superior source material, the fact that it's a comic book with a western setting may affect studio desire to produce this movie--which I don't think is especially good news for Preacher fans since Hex looks like a dog.

The HBO series is the only way to go with this story. A film is just not going to cut it. (No pun intended.) There's a lot of story there and chopping it to fit two hours, (I don't see them doing three)really heralds poor plot structure, poor character development or both. Any shortfalls in those areas will unravel the very things that made it such a hit in the first place making marketing it to a mass audience moot. (Alliteration also unintended.)

Somehow it feels like the sense it it being "meant to be" gets way diluted. If the final result is good, then cool, but along the way it just feels like it becomes more of an Effort with a capital "E" and less of a natural thing. That aside I never even properly READ this story and I'd like to see it made!

Nothing in his ouvre shows me that the man has an eye. And Preacher needs an eye. As well, Hill's characters tend to be deplorable human beings and Jesse Cutler is very sympathetic, some would say heroic.

Keep Carnahan away from this. "Smokin' Aces" proved he doesn't know how to handle a "big" story. And a big NO to Jody Hill as well.
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Sam Mendes would have been great. Though neither one would probably do it, Darabont and Tarantino would be my other two top choices. Hell, what about Tony Scott?

He walks around drinking, smoking, fucking and beating ass while hunting God and still wearing his collar.<P>
Jody Hill would be perfect for any Garth Ennis adaptation because he excels at deplorable hero characters, black comedy, and has proven he could do action.

but what about Werner Herzog!!!??? I know I say his name for every upcoming film but I don't believe there's a genre he couldn't do wonders with. Imagine him taking on the Batman gig! Hell, what if Marvel gave him Avengers?
Yep, Herzog can do ANYTHING justice.

Of course an HBO series would be the optimal choice, but a series, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter style wouldn't be a half bad idea.
And Western setting? What the fuck are you talking about? Are you trying to say the Saint of Killers character existing makes it a western? lol

As much as I dig Garth Ennis, shouldn't we let go of this Preacher fetish and instead do a movie version of Shade, The Changing Man or at least a version of Hellblazer that doesn't have Keanu Reeves (and resembles the comic).

Dogma, Showgirls, Kick-Ass, Watchmen, The Golden Compass and many others underperformed. The American people don't seem to show up in drones to any film with controversy surrounding it, whether it has good reviews or bad.</P><p>Somone else mentioned pay-cable, and that might work.

The only way that this could really work would be a planned film series, like what they've done with the Harry Potter films. There's just too much there and if you cut out a backstory here or a big chunk of the story there, you're just going to butcher the whole thing. They need to commit to at least 5-7 films if they're going to do this right.
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Also, the studio would have to commit to a hard 'R' rating if they want to capture the essence of what made the graphic novels so good. With Watchmen disappointing people a few years ago, I doubt that anybody would want to go past PG13 for material like this, especially if it's going to be a big series.
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Even with an R rating, the religious criticism, absurd sex, black humor, etc. would all make this thing radioactive at the box office and a major PR nightmare. That's one of the reasons that HBO gave for passing on the show a few years ago when James Marsden was attached as Jesse.
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I'm thinking, at best, if Preacher ever gets adapted, we'll get something that looks and feels a hell of a lot like the new Jonah Hex movie. I'd rather not bother with that.

There's 75 issues to this damn thing and it's pretty overhyped to be truthful.
Just because a cmoic is filled with violence, profanity and heavy anti-religious commentary doesn't necessarily make it a classic. Nor does it warrant turning into a movie, because basically the only people truly interested in the subject matter will have read the damn thing and then spend the next christ knows how many years whining about how the movie missed the target and how their favourite parts were excluded.
I mean we've still got the fucking treehuggers bleating on about the exclusion of Tom Fucking Bombadil from the Bloody Lord of the Rings.
And anything that inspired Stephen King to write his ponderous, painful and totally useless Dark Tower series isn't something we should be championing.

A few years ago, a series was in development for HBO. James Marsden was attached to play Jesse and was really excited after reading the series. They were going to go for 5-6 seasons and make each comic into its own episode, plus bring in Ennis to help write some new stuff. HBO passed on the show because they were afraid of backlash over the religious overtones, sex, and violence.
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When you really piss on Christianity like Preacher does, you are going to offend a large, vocal chunk of your viewers, and get tons of headaches for it, including death threats and possibly even lunatics trying to kill you.
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The only way that Preacher will ever get adapted is if an HBO or Showtime decides to suck it up and do the show. The initial controversy would actually draw viewers in, and after a season or two it would fade away. But you've got to have the balls to actually stick with it through that shitstorm. Few networks and network execs do.
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A watered-down, PG13, 2 hour film adaptation (or three) of Preacher would be an embarrassment.

IIRC, the actual run of the series was 66 issues. There were a few miniseries that could be summed up in short segments in a film, too.
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Yeah, the books drag a bit at times, especially near the end when Jesse's sherrif of Salvation, but it's a damn good ride with soem great characters.

control the budget. This does not need to be a 100 million movie.<P>
They should make it a trilogy with a total budget of 100 million for the 3.<P>
Watchmen made 185 worldwide, Kick-Ass made 95, Wanted made 341, Constantine made 230, Blade made 131. That's an average of 196, so 100 million for a trilogy and they could make it back on the first movie, and market the hell out of the other 2.

If A-Team is half as bad as it looks. The only trailers for a Summer movie that look worse right now are for Jonah Hex. A-Team just looks absolutely awful, and I think Carnahan directing Preacher is like a few months back when they said Logan Lerman was a lock to play the new Spider-Man. Then Percy Jackson came out and failed. Then he was no longer in the running. Same thing will happen with Carnahan after A-Team drops like a stone.

for HBO would be the way to go.
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Also, I wouldn't mind seeing Katey Sacoff as Tulip.
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Maybe James Macavoy as Jessie Custer
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for Cassidy, there is this actor from the Show Primeval. don't know his name, but he has red hair, long chops and gets bitten by a rabid Dodo bird.
He would be a good pick.
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As for Herr Star, Clancy Brown is not the right choice.
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I think a much better choice would be Christof Walz from Inglorious Bastards. He could play the character completely serious and overbearing all while still letting his Tragic outcome make us all laugh ourselves silly.
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I have been waiting forever for a Preacher film, and this guy is probably the best choice yet.

These movies all made money in the long-run via home video. There are a world of movies out there that never made their own budget back, and no one ever talks about or cares about. I think you do good cult films a disservice by assuming large studios don't appreciate the money they've made off of these types of movies where they have not given the filmmakers a huge budget, yet in the long run these titles proved that with a little ingenuity you can turn a profit.

Look, I like Depp, but for Custer? Please god no. Jesse Custer is a man's man, who prefers to solve problems with his wits, his glare, and his fists, before resorting to The Word. Johnny Depp is a good actor and a good looking guy (and yes I'm aware that Fabry based his look of Custer on Depp for many of his covers) but he is NOT a steel-balled badass like Custer needs to be. Depp would actually be better suited to Cassidy, but I don't want to see that either. There aren't many actors who could pull off Jesse Custer, but unfortunately the one I would choose is already playing a variation of the same character on TV, specifically Tim Olyphant as Raylan Givens on Justified. Put him in a preacher's collar and he'd be perfect. Jesse HAS to be someone who can give you a look that would tell you he could kick your ass, and then physically back it up. Depp, Franco, and Farrell are too pretty-boy, IMO. <p> And I'm not opposed to the idea of Clancy Brown as Starr (just because Brown is AWESOME in everything), but he's almost TOO physically imposing... remember, Starr only passed unarmed combat training by shooting his instructor ("I intend to never BE disarmed.") A Starr/Custer fist fight between Brown and Depp or Franco would be a bad joke. I always pictured Alan Rickman, or John Malkovich, as Starr... someone with cold intelligence behind his eyes, but who would stand no chance in a real fight. <p> However, Katee Sackhoff as Tulip is the best casting idea I've yet heard for Preacher. That needs to happen. Good job, whoever suggested that.

Aside from all the offensive elements, it's a saga with nice characterization and certain things probably won't work in live action- film or cable series.
Really, I'd be happy with Preacher versus Twilight. Is it just me or do the vampires and werewolves in that comes across as the sort of weirdos Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy kept running into?

When they passed on Preacher because it was "too much", and since then we've seen 2 blood soaked seasons of gay vampire cock-sucking, orgy filled, drug fueled, crazy christian bashing True Blood.<P>
I don't mind that show, but everyone time I watch it, it feels like HBO is laughing/pissing in my face a little bit.

In my opinion (obviously), Depp, like Dicaprio, always has and still does look like a boy playing dress-up in his father's clothes when he does movies like Public Enemies (or Shutter Island, in Leo's case) where he's supposed to be a tough guy. Custer needs to be way more rugged than that. Olyphant could do it, though I used to think that the guy who played Lt. Spears in Band of Brothers could be good in the role. Not anymore, though, I saw him on some CW show the other day and he got kinda flabby. It's going to be a very hard role to cast properly. Same with John Custer.

...but I thought it was pretty great and deliciously fucked up. Ages ago, though, when I was much teenagier than I am now, so I don't know if it holds up. Arseface was unpleasant.<p>For some reason apropos of nothing I feel like the success of JONAH HEX might tell how a PREACHER flick would play.<p>I would just rather a SANDMAN film, to be honest.

Guys a video which looks like a trailer from the rebooted MK movie has just been released.but i dont know,it might even be a fan made video because there is no info about the movie in IMDB.BUT it has Jeri Ryan as Sonya Blade and Michael Jai White as Jackson Briggs aka JAX in the video.It looks that they are going for the serious/adult/r-rated route.check it out:<br /><p>check it out.if it is indeed a trailer i hope AICN will post it.<br /><p>http://tinyurl.com/37795en

No disrespect etc, but fifteen years he could have been great, but he went the shirt-off doofus route. He can act (and might have made an intriguing Bruce Wayne once) but he's pissed any kudos away. Maybe he'll claw some back. The likes of Downey Jr and Rourke at least had tales of redemption to tell; Matthew's like a slightly less well-nourished and better mannered Val Kilmer; a vague smile of past recognition, then nothing...

I'm not sure what the story is with him, besides he just decided to take it easy and not take challenging roles, but i WANT to believe he's just not getting sent challenging and good material. The guy has proven time and time again that he's a bag of charisma and I'd to see him in such dark material as Preacher.

I would be seriously interested in a Cassidy solo film that is based on his adventure in New Orleans with a fellow vampire. Seriously funny and perfect blueprint for a movie. I'd love Ewan MacGregor as Cassidy in that flick. Some Producer out there ought to make his way to a comic book shop and pick up the story and realize a goldmine. It can work as a prequel or sequel to Preacher.

...A Cassidy flick based on that 1-shot would be great, just tweak it a little to change the other vamp from a goth to more of an emo "Twilight" type. LOVED Cassidy's line (paraphrasing here), "I spend years thinking I'm the only vampire and when I finally meet another one... he's a bloody wanker!"

Why not a series? Hasn't anyone been watching Supernatural on the friggin WB?!? If people are worried about the religious overtones, they need to reevaluate their fears. SPOILERS....Supernatural, a show on BROADCAST TV just got done with a storyline where Angels and Demons both were destroying the earth, AND GOD ABANDONED us. Now I know Preacher goes one step farther, but it would be on cable. As far as casting, too bad Tim Olyphant is already tied to justified, he would be a great Preacher, Sarah Carter as Tulip, Giuseppe Andrews as Cassidy...

Timothy Olyphant is playing Jesse Custer right now, Tough smooth southern guy who at one point has to return to a home town he loathes. Tom Hardy as Cassidy his crazed energy in Bronson and Rock n rolla is fantastic.

That the HBO executives who greenlight/generate new programming resenled the Sex and The City old ladies and their mincing homosexual gay man-pets? It's like the entire network is being programmed by this group of people. Whatever happened to the people that got The Sopranos on the channel? Did they get fired or move on to AMC or something? It's really pathetic right now, the depths that HB-hOpeless has sunk. You can bet your ass that if it wasn't for Will Ferral's pull something like "Eastbound and Down" never would have been approved by the suits (or should I say skirts?) at what was once the crown jewel of premium channels.

knowing the outcome would make it pointless. Hardly gonna be going 'ooh, where's this going?'. Adapt the fucker, the comic exists, dont need to create a carbon copy. Will take real skill to create something new and decent out of all that quality material, dont just follow the watchmen route of bland replication.

Jesse *accidentally* kills his congregation when the Genesis creature lands in his church. And he was most certainly sorry for what happened. Hill characters are unrepentant in their assholery. Jesse hunts down God because he believes that God has forsaken humanity. That may be blasphemous, but it's honorable. Hill characters don't give a shit about being honorable. They are selfish, deluded, horrible human beings. And what action did Hill direct that tells you he'd be remotely qualified for Preacher?

Not Herr Starr. Starr should be intellectual and cerebral. I really liked the Christoph Waltz suggestion. A long time ago, I suggested Liam Neeson or Gary Oldman. <p> I've been championing Brown as the Saint since Talalay had the project. <p> I really think Elizabeth Banks is the best bet for Tulip. And I never thought about Tom Hardy as Cassidy, but that doesn't sound half bad. <p> The real challenge is finding someone that can handle the tour de force of the acting job that is the character Jesse Custer. A long time ago I suggested an up and comer you might have heard of named Heath Ledger, but that's obvious not happening anymore. Check out a lot of my old school casting choices AICN's own Zone here (without spaces): <p> http://zone.aintitcool.com/viewtopic.php?p=155017#p155017 <p> or here: <p> http://zone.aintitcool.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=53235&hilit=Preacher#p205655

Interesting, to me anyway. <P>I'd like to see this done as a series so they could linger and/or hurry things up whenever needed. As a movie, or movies, they'll have to make hard, permanent decisions about what stays and what goes, as well as what particular tone they want to use. With a series they can take more time to flesh that out and let what feels best work itself out naturally.

I'm very passionate about PREACHER. It's my all time favorite graphic novel. I started reading it from the beginning when I saw an article about it in WIZARD magazine (remember when that didn't suck!?) <p>
Anyway, one of the most crushing things for me, personally, would be have them butcher this. I've always been in the "this has to be an HBO mini series a la BAND OF BROTHERS" camp, but I'd take some well-made films. Plural. That tell the whole story. Not one film that butchers it and abandons it.

It's like they gave Ennis too much liberty to jack off and that's what he did rather than tighten the plot or move along the interesting characters he developed. All the love for Preacher sounds like a bunch of teenagers who giggle at every Ennis ass-rape joke and resent Supernatural because it tells a bit of the story with more elan and without using the word "fuck" once.

Casting. Seriously, there are hundreds if not thousands of posts waiting to debate this. Tom Cruise. The guy from The New Kid. Sean William Scott. Eli Stone. Any of the Hobbits. The Sarah Conner Chronicles kid. The glow in the dark kid from Sky High. Will Stronghold from Sky High. Shia LaBoof. The kid that was The Flash on Smallville. The kid that was Young Bruce Banner in Ang Lee's HULK that died on Everwood. Dwight Schrute. McLovin'. All these people have that slightly mentally challenged look to them.

Watch In Bruges and Six Shooter, he's got the right sensibility for the project. And he could get Farrell on board as Cassidy. Depp is no-brainer casting for Custer, but he's fully booked for the next few years on shite Disney projects.

Carnivale was amazing hbo fucked that show off because of high production cost and the fact it wasn't bringing in sopranos ratings.that show is still my favorite television of all time.i just heard about this last week in another tb.i want to check it out now.one of my thoughts was if this does greenlit will it suffer a simular fate as carnivale.and anything envolving clancy brown is a good thing

Whatever happened to "Killing Pablo?" Personally, I thought The Preacher series was a turd. DaVinci Code meets Jonah Hexish... with some other horseshit. I'd personally go with something like "100 Bullets."

Seems like everyone in our industry feels safe contorting... twisting... Christian theology (which various aspects not all Christians believe... for instance Catholicism... Eastern Orthodox... or the Sola Scriptura crowd) for the sake of a good story. Why won't Comedy Central or Hollywood producers get edgy and make The Preacher possessed by Muhammad... he goes around screwing 9 year olds, etc. Oh, that's right... studio heads may literally "worry" about their heads and their cars blowing up. Let them take the easy target... Christianity. The worse they will do it boycott it.